User blog:Sebastian Clarke/Noblesse: The Rise And Fall Of A Webtoon Legend...
DISCLAIMER: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own and does not reflect the views of the wiki owners, nor is it intended to ridicule or criticise the authors, artists, editors, translators or anyone else associated with creating, publishing and sharing this Webtoon. This is intended to be a stand alone look at what made Noblesse great, and the reasons behind its recent decline. At this point I should probably state that I love Noblesse and I still do, probably more than most people, since most of my time is spent on updating and cleaning this wiki. This post is intended to open up a larger discussion about the decline of Noblesse, it is not intended to offend, degrade or make accusations. If you comment on this post, please be respectful of each others opinions. NOTE: Since this is an in depth look at Noblesse, there will be spoilers for the entire series. Noblesse is a gem of a series and it's one of those series that as soon as you've read a couple of chapters, you're instantly hooked. With well thought out characters, beautiful artwork and comedic storytelling, Noblesse is at the top of its game. As one of three biggest titles on Webtoons, alongside 'Tower Of God' and 'God Of High School' Noblesse was arguably the biggest, included in the top 5 on every list going and the only one to get 2 anime adaptations, Noblesse had it all. A decade later things have changed drastically. Noblesse is nowhere to be seen in the most popular titles, now placing somewhere in the top 20, the forums which were once thriving communities, having now been abandoned, and the comment sections on Webtoons, being plagued with trolls. So what happened to Noblesse? Well, that's what I'm going to discuss below, in great detail. Which is my way of saying this is going to be an incredibly long post, so you might want to get yourself a cup of tea before settling down to read this. I'm focusing solely on the Manhwa for my review. To keep the discussion in some kind of order, I'll be looking at three key areas: Artwork; Characters and Storyline / Plot. To work out why Noblesse has declined in popularity, we need to look at what made it one of the three giants of Webtoons, and how it gained its initial momentum. When Noblesse first made its appearance in December 2007, it was an instant hit with most people, whereas it took some fans a couple of tries to get into the series. The series is a slow burner, with locations, history and characters being introduced in bite-size chunks without too much being given away. This doesn't really matter too much since the artwork is breath-taking, the earlier chapters are griping enough to hold your attention and you know that as the series continues, you'll learn more about the world and your questions will be answered. Most of the first series focuses on our protagonist finding out about the modern world. Watching him struggle with mundane tasks that each and everyone of us takes for granted is refreshing and rather amusing to read at times. This is what set Noblesse apart from other similar Manhwa's and was what drew many to the series in the first place. It was a series full of potential and it gave many of us readers something to look forward to as the world, characters and artwork developed over time. The story at that time centred around Frankenstein trying to figure out the reason his Master went to sleep 820 years ago, while helping him adjust to the new world. This gave the characters a purpose, something which seems to be lacking in later chapters. As new characters are introduced they're given just enough personality to keep them engaging, and as the series moves forward, we learn more about some of the characters. The mixture of light, carefree comedic interactions and fierce battles are what made the series great and what most people enjoyed. ARTWORK Lets begin by looking at the artwork. The artwork is by far the best thing about the series. The scenes are beautifully drawn and the artistic style has improved massively from where the series began. The characters are beautifully designed and everyone has a list of their favourite characters. The biggest problem with the artwork is recently most of the shots appear to be little more than explosions, or various close up shots of characters regenerating. There aren't really any decent action shots and with so much going back and fourth between various simultaneous battles, it's hard to know what's going on, or even who's fighting who. A case in point being Takeo and M-21 facing the blue-haired mutant and the red-haired mutant in recent chapters. M-21 is fighting the blue-haired mutant and Takeo is fighting the red-haired mutant, however just a chapter later and only a few panels between them, the two have swapped opponents. With so many close up shots, and various battles being played out off-camera, it's hard to know where everyone is in relation to each other, who's been defeated, or even what the transformed mutants look like. This only relates to the recent battles in season 8, and even then only affects the last 50 or so chapters. Apart from minor details like this, the artwork remains the strongest part of this series, as a whole, and is what keeps fans coming back week after week. The artwork isn't the reason for Noblesse's decline, so the problem lies elsewhere. CHARACTERS Noblesse creates great characters and it's what's kept the series going for as long as it has. The wide variety of characters, the different powers, abilities, and most importantly, their personalities. The real character problems begin in the fourth season when 12th Elder and Cerberus are introduced. The group have no personality, when compared to earlier villains and aren't really given enough development to be engaging, before being killed by the good guys. Let's compare, Hammer, a villain from the DA-5 arc and 12th Elder from the Cerberus arc. From what is shown of Hammer, we know he's a glutton, good with explosives and although we don't know his history before DA-5, we know that he's not a pleasant person from his words and actions. 12th Elder isn't given as much attention to detail. He's a generic bad guy, who despite having a contract with Roctis Kravei doesn't really amount to much, even with Cerberus and The 8th Fleet at his disposal. Since, 12th Elder is the only other person in the series, who is shown to have a contract with a Noble other than Frankenstein, more could have been done to develop him and his character. Especially, his meeting and subsequent contract with Roctis. He is also the first time we see an Elder of the Union, who up until now, have been pulling the strings from behind the scenes. In conclusion, 12th Elder is a wasted villain and could have been utilised more effectively. The lack of character development, for villains, after the fourth season sinks further into the abyss and the series suffers for it. For this we'll look at the nameless characters from the last two seasons and 1st Elder. The nameless werewolf warriors killed by Muzaka, had great character designs and although they weren't really given much airtime, they did talk, which is the complete opposite of 'The Royal Guard' and 'Dr. Crombel's Mutants' who despite featuring predominantly in several key chapters, don't say a single word between them. The characters could have been given, back stories and personalities, which would have added interest and depth to the storytelling, especially when the artwork is incredible. The biggest victim of the wasted villain trend is 1st Elder. Everyone loves 1st Elder, not only because he was the first smart villain, in that he knew the scheming and treachery of all the Union Elders, and kept an eye on their activities at a distance, but also because of his strong character design. Being a popular character, it would have been nice to get some background on him or maybe find out his real name, since he's the first villain we've had that's had a decent motive. Yet, only a few chapters after his introduction, he goes from threatening Crombel, taking on the werewolves as the self-styled 'King Of The Human Race', to being Crombel's puppet, before eventually being killed. Definitely a wasted opportunity in terms of character development. One of the main reasons Noblesse set itself apart from the competition, in its heyday, was their incredible character writing, and the comedic interactions between them, which in light of the recent nameless villains trend, has lead to a drastic decline in popularity. The characters haven't had any major development or progression for over 200 chapters, which makes the series feel stale. We don't really know much about the histories of several main characters and it would be nice to have smaller arcs focused on building the world and developing the supporting characters. At this point I should mention that Noblesse had a spin-off light novel adaptation called 'Noblesse S', which ran for 47 chapters, revolving around the main characters going about their daily lives. This could have been interwoven into the main Webtoon and it would have given several characters some much needed development. Take for instance, Takeo, who hasn't really changed much since his introduction in the second series, apart from getting slightly stronger, his overall character development has been really weak, especially given that he's one of the main supporting characters. Even his battle with Dr. Aris, didn't do any wonders for his character development, since it was over in two chapters with only a small handful of panels being dedicated to the exchange and battle between them. This is one of the moments that most people have likely been waiting for since the beginning of the series, given their history, yet the conclusion and the way it was dealt with seems a little lacklustre and far too quick, for there to be any real satisfaction gained from the exchange. At this point, I'd also like to point out that Frankenstein's character development is all over the place. He started off as an elegant character, something which is mentioned and noted by several other characters, this is also evident in his speech. Recently, he's been using words like 'Y'all' and 'Hella', in other words, informal slang that would never be used by someone who is considered elegant. I wonder whether this has more to do with the translators, being lazy, rather than the writers, either way, it feels completely wrong. It'd be like Frankenstein saying: 'I'm knackered' (British slang for, I'm tired). The reason, this takes away from his character, is because if we look at what he's said and done so far, it's been done with an air of elegance, even when he's insulting people. By lowering his class, you take away part of his charm and appeal, which considering he's most people's favourite character, isn't the best thing to do. The character development overall could really use some work. There are several characters that feel like 2D generic copy and paste antagonists and protagonists, that do little to further the plot and don't really seem to serve much purpose beyond existing. Saying that, I feel that the bad character writing especially for later villains has been part of the reason for Noblesse's decline. Gone are the days when we had bad guys that had reasons and motives for their actions, now we just have throw away characters, for the protagonists to roll over. It's bad character development, especially when the artwork for these characters is amazing. The character writing has gotten weaker, however bad character development is not the only reason for the fall of Noblesse. STORYLINE / PLOT The story is where Noblesse has lost the most traction in recent years, with repetitive storytelling and no significant plot development, the series is going downhill fast. Noblesse is classed as a shonen series, meaning its target audience is young males, however, the problem with most shonen series is that they fall into the escalation trap. The escalation problem, for those of you unfamiliar with the expression, is when one arc ends the stakes are raised or new more powerful characters are introduced, to keep the story progressing. Sound familiar. There's nothing wrong with raising the stakes continually in the short term, however, stretched over a decade, the formula becomes stale and the series ceases to be recognisable as the same series as it was when it began. The problem lies with either the characters becoming too powerful, that fight scenes no longer resemble earlier battles or the stakes continue to escalate getting more and more ridiculous, that it completely alienates its audience. The stakes can only get so high, and the power so strong, before situations become utterly meaningless. This is a series that has so many things going for it that, they don't need to continually raise the stakes to keep it relevant and moving forward. An example being the current battles. They could easily have been split into several smaller arcs, with smaller stakes, especially if it means something personal to one of the main characters. There are so many fights going on, that the series would benefit from one fight being allowed to play out in full over one or two chapters, before showing the next battle. There's nothing wrong with shrinking the story down and making the next threat something smaller, if its personal to one of your main characters and it also helps to shape and develop your character's personality. You can do the "We need to save the world!" storyline again and again, but it can only go so far before it becomes boring and redundant. A great example of a personal battle with smaller stakes is, the battle between M-21, Yuri, Dr. Aris and Mark, where M-21 not only managed to take on all 3 by himself, but also managed to prove to himself that everything he'd suffered through to get to this moment was worth it. It was a sort of coming of age, that finally allowed him to have some sort of closure and make peace with his turbulent past. It was beautiful to watch M-21 realise his self-worth and come into his own as a formidable fighter. This was much more satisfying battle, than any of the more recent battles. The stakes in this battle were smaller and personal to M-21, which is why Takeo and Tao didn't get involved, thereby leaving a much bigger impact and a much more satisfying end when the threat was resolved. The battle only lasted for two chapters, but the impact was massive. To delve deeper into the plot, I'm going to look at each season individually, giving my overall thoughts on each one, before talking more about the storyline in general. The first season was slow building, it set the scene for the series and introduced the main characters. It was handled beautifully and was a joy to read, given its comedic dialogue. It gave us characters that we cared about and characters whose journey's we were looking forward to as the series continued to develop. The second season added more characters to the cast and with great character writing, these characters were engaging and felt like they'd been there from the very beginning. The arrival of the new characters, gave us a new perspective on the humour and added to our overall enjoyment. The series was going from strength to strength at this point. It's with the third season, that the series really came into its own. It introduced the Nobles, having mentioned them briefly in previous chapters and gave us some much needed insight into the main characters and the history of the world in which they live. It also gave us a great supporting cast, while simultaneously adding more plot twists and stories that would eventually be covered in later arcs. However, it was shortly after this volume concluded that we found out that Rai our main protagonist has a serious drawback to his powers, in that as he uses his powers, he uses up his life force (which thanks to his plot armour, means that he's still alive and kicking more than 300+ chapters later). Season four started by introducing us to the world of the Elders and allowed us to see more of the Union all of them followed, however, it was here that the real problems started, since the only person capable of defeating the bad guys was Rai, who at this point was slowly losing his life-force. (Oh dear!) The humour was still present to some extent and the series although lacking in basic plot and character development, was still enjoyable to read. Season five started promisingly enough with Frankenstein's back story, the introduction of several new Elders and more plot development, however, despite Seira, Rajak and Frankenstein all fighting the battle, the one to destroy the enemies was Rai. I know that this is his job as the Noblesse, and they were dealing with the traitor Nobles, but if Frankenstein can defeat Gradeus, later in the series, then why couldn't Seira have been the one to defeat Zarga, given his involvement in her Father's death, with Frankenstein finishing off Urokai, given their tumultuous history. Granted, Frankenstein was severely injured, so wouldn't have been able to achieve much. At this point having two seasons with the same basic plot structure, was starting to wear thin and it was this structure that continued into the sixth season of the story. This season introduced Muzaka and having fought several battles up until his introduction, Rai's life-force was waning faster than the Flash... (yes I'm a total loser). With Rai at his lowest point, and stronger battles ahead, Rai was given a power boost in the form of The Previous Lord's Ragnarok. This set up season seven, which is where the bulk of the main problems began. Season seven began with what is arguably one of the best moments in the series and one of my favourite moments overall, when Gejutel 'accidentally' destroys Frankenstein's kitchen, leaving Rael to clean up the mess, leading to him calling the RK trio for help. It was moments like these that made the series what it was. Season seven brought with it Rajak's death and the Traitorous Clan Leaders arc. A decisive moment in this arc came when Rai had reached his limit and Lagus Tradio had managed to gain the upper hand, with everyone too worn out to be of any help, things looked bad for Rai, however, due to the power of his plot armour, Rai manages to draw even greater power and destroy Lagus, after Edian sacrifices herself to save him. This series also introduced Rai's brother, who for some reason is never mentioned again and 'The Blood Stone', an ancient relic that is said to be one of a kind, but for some reason keeps popping up. The storyline and plot has been weakening overtime, however, season 8 is the worst by far. Season 8 began with the Maduke arc, which is where the trend of the defeated bad guy, using the blood stone and coming back to life began. It gets more and more redundant as time goes on, and now it's expected. If you take a look at the 131+ chapters, that currently make up season 8, we've seen Frankenstein battle: Gorma; Krano; Braang; Dorant; Ignes; Mirai; Maduke; The Royal Guards; 1st Elder; The Guards; Dr. Crombel's Mutants and Dr. Crombel. That's exhausting to read and with no recovery between any of these fights, it's a wonder Frankenstein is still standing at this point. The repeated back to back battles with the same basic plot structure, is the fastest way to destroy a story. With these recent chapters, a lot of the humour, that used to be present, has also disappeared, making Noblesse a shadow of what it once was. There is nothing wrong with plot armour in a series, since if all our favourite characters died, after following their stories for several seasons, it'd be heartbreaking, as was the case for Rajak's death. Yet, Rai and Frankenstein have the most powerful plot armour that any obstacle in their way, is merely glossed over. What's that, Frankenstein is about to lose, send in the RK. Rai's dying, again? Give him a power boost. The bad guys are too easy to beat, lets give them a power boost. They've been defeated, now what? Lets give them a second power boost, because the battle was so good, I'm sure the readers would love to see it twice. Endless repetition, especially when it happens from chapter to chapter is terrible writing. The characters don't seem to have any long term goals that they're working towards, and currently seem to be reacting to whatever the antagonists do in the series. Right now the only character with a long term goal is M-21, searching for his name and the names of his comrades. The problem partially lies in the fact that there are too many character's and not enough panels or dialogue for all of them. Putting your characters in different situations, even mundane everyday situations, allows us to see a different side to their character and gives them more depth and develops their personality. This is why moving the everyday lives of the main characters into the side novel, Noblesse S, was a terrible idea. Another way of dealing with the problem would be to, shrink the character list down. For example... (Please don't hate me for this), we could have a situation where Frankenstein is seriously injured in a battle, leaving him in a coma for several weeks. The bad guy(s) responsible got away, so the RK decide to hunt him/them down and avenge their boss. Not that it's ever likely to happen, but it would make an interesting side story. There are a few sub-character developing storylines, which I would like to see developed and expanded on, otherwise, why add them to the series at all, of course I'm talking about the relationships between: Rai and Raskreia; Seira and Shinwoo (although, I prefer Rael); Frankenstein and Lunark. It would be wonderful to see a few chapters dedicated to each of these pairings and how their relationship dynamics play out. Maybe you could introduce a time leap at the end of the series to show where the characters have ended up after 10 years. It'd be nice to see Frankenstein trying to stop little Lunark and little Frankenstein from making a mess of his home, with Lunark laughing at the scene... (Don't judge me, I have no life). Seira is a great character, we know that she's the only member of her Clan, and that her Father, was killed in a trap set by the humans. This is a great sub-plot and could have been given a chapter or two to develop her character and show what took place. Maybe, her facing and dealing with her families murderers, considering they were modified humans, in league with the Nobles. We could have several chapters showing the Clan Leaders talk with their predecessors, especially since several Previous Clan Leaders have yet to be named or shown in the series. This would go a long way to building character development and giving us greater insight into the world of Noblesse. Or maybe an arc focusing on each of the Clan Leaders in turn, delving into their family history and showing more of their lives, before they became Clan Leaders. It'd be nice, if we were given Gradeus' family name, even though he cast it aside, not much was shown of his time in Lukedonia, the first we see of him is when he shows up in Traitor Nobles arc with Edian Drosia and Lagus Tradio. There were a few flashbacks of him speaking with Ragar Kertia. Alas, a sad flashback, is not an alternative for real character development, as was also the case for Edian. There are several soul weapons without a name, and we have yet to see the ultimate attacks for many of them, which could have been shown when the opportunity arose, and now it seems likely that we'll never know. We could have care-free scenarios of the group celebrating Christmas, Halloween, or maybe even having a birthday party. I'm sure there are a lot of things that Raizel has yet to experience. If you take a look at the flashback Raizel has during his battle with Titan, there's a panel where Rai has been soaked through by Takeo, while they were outside cleaning the car, or possibly Rai's puppy. The point being, we need more comedic situations between battles. Perhaps, the Noblesse S series could be adapted into the main story somehow. The series misses so many tricks, and could have been so much more, if it had been slowed down and more thought was put into the content of the series. Lastly, lets talk about the plot holes. There are a lot of plot holes, most notably Crombel and Yuri conveniently suffering from a bout of amnesia and forgetting about the existence of the Noblesse. Rai having seven satellites to destroy, when it should have been closer to four, if you factor in the ones he's destroyed and the ones disabled by Tao and 3rd Elder. If you're going to write a story, at least make sure you know what's been written previously. It shows a blatant disregard for your story, if it's riddled with errors and plot holes, which will certainly be noticed, by the fans of the series. The current Dr. Crombel arc is a showdown many of us have been waiting for since he was introduced as the main bad guy at the beginning of the series. Everything has been leading to this moment, but currently, the fighting has been underwhelming and for this to be the end of what was once a great series, is a let down. It feels as though the author has given up writing the series and has decided to finish it off as soon as possible, regardless of what it means for the series as a whole. It's a mediocre disappointment for those of us, who have dedicated over 10 years of our lives to this Manhwa, only for it to end on the lowest of lows. I really hope that once this arc concludes, the author has a new bad guy up his sleeve, because if this is indeed the end of the series, then it's a dreadful end to a story that had unlimited potential and could have easily continued for another decade if the storytelling had been up to scratch. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, sorry about the length. Like I said at the start, this is not intended to cause offence or make accusations, it's merely to create a focused discussion on where Noblesse lost its momentum. Let me know your thoughts on the series. Category:Blog posts